WOW!!!I have just went through all your posts from the first one, and calculated that this MER 3D model was at least 1932 days in the making, although even in your very first post there were some parts finished. You can rarely see that kind of determination these days. Well, I would REALLY like to say something to describe what I think about this AWESOME piece of ART but my knowledge of English is just not enough good for that, so I will just settle for fantastic, beautiful, inspiring and wonderful.I can't wait to see what would it look like when finished.

P.S.On the funny side......did you heard there is another even more complex rover currently en route to Mars?

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The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.Jules H. Poincare

Scooterlord the new rear view render is stunning - even more things to ogle at! As to the Pancam, you've modelled it superbly ...it's how it is shown mounted on Mer's RH side which is not quite right; the wiring connection should be below the lens on the RH. The LH side is perfect..Keep the Christmas presents coming!! [I should get out more!]

That's just AMAZING! Isn't this some vision! Are you using x-rays? Well done, minor detail but you were right, I though you meant about the lens being on the same side, I'll have this fixed. I am glad that you people spent quite some time studying my model and I guess you will be amazed by the amount of detail I made out of the reference found on the web...

Today I spent most of the day fixing 'bad surfaces' on the model, there were quite a few, had them all fixed though Currently I am doing test renders on the environment, it's very difficult to get a nice surface at the high resolutions I am aiming at, will post later to get some opinions..

edit: @Toma B... Yes, I saw the curiosity rover, but.. I don't think so! LOL. I don't have enough 'life' to model this as well... Unless NASA hires me to do so that is.. hehe

This for me started as a fun modeling challenge to myself and it ended up eating up most of my brain thinking about every single day. Now, as I have already said, it will become the most important asset in my portfolio in order to get a job. I want to change professions, working at a hospital just isn't enough for me, and I am certain that you can see I am being wasted in there. Hopefully someone will notice and care to help..

edit2: Here are the render of the environment. They are big res files (3400x1996). What do you guys think?

Scooterlord, I stand in awe of your 3D abilities. I shall never open Blender again!

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Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks --"The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C ClarkeMother Nature is the final inspector of all quality.

Sorry I didn't have enough time to fix the pancam thingie, but will do so, I keep that in mind.

For people into technical 3d stuff. This render, although is 5400x3173 (that is TWICE the size of the previous render), it only took half the time and this time consumed 5.5gb of ram. I had forgotten to turn export instances; for people that don't know (and care to know an instance is an object multiplied many times that is the same, like the photoboltaic mirrors, or the bolts, etc. It saved me a lot of time!

I didn't mention it so far, but the most difficult and time-consuming part of the rover was making the cables and the threads that hold them together. I was bored a million of times and just pushed myself to making them... finally, you can even see the knots on the underside of the wings if you pay attention. Only in this size of renders can they be clearly seen.

Expecting your comments, the next render might probably show up textured

Look absolutely beautiful. At some point, you will need to do a render with the camera moved a few inches to the left or right so someone here can create a 3D view.

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Space Enthusiast Richard Hendricks --"The engineers, as usual, made a tremendous fuss. Again as usual, they did the job in half the time they had dismissed as being absolutely impossible." --Rescue Party, Arthur C ClarkeMother Nature is the final inspector of all quality.

I see the knots and lot of other amazing details, what a marvel! This vision recall me the high-res MER movie I saw in Paris years ago...You say this rendering took half the time of previous one but... how much time, exactly? (well, I know this question should be coupled to "which kind of hardware/software?" but I know also the risk of going OT here, so pls don't be too technical on this side! ).Good suggestion from Hendric about 3D view...

As soon as I am done, I can make a 3d view out of it. Damn it's just two renders..

This HUGE render took about 6 hours, I am using rhinoceros 3d beta 5 x64, maxwell render, and am on an Intel i7 960 @3.2Ghz (that is 4 core-8 hyperthreaded -considered like 8-core) with 6gb of ram dd3 triple channel (expecting 12gb soon). However, because I want the pc to be silent, I am using a program to limit the core usage to 75%, makes it run cool and silent However with materials it's another story, good thing I don't mind having the pc on and another good thing is that the renderer allows you to stop and resume the render whenever you want!

Currently I am at work but checking on a material render of just the RAT (includes displacement) and it has run 6 hours so far at about 1200x6??. Looks a bit hazy, but I was in a rush when I started the render, so I might not have focused the camera correctly. Looks absolutely S T U N N I N G If I finish this later on tonight I'll post the render.

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